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Keywords

Higher education institutions, internationalization, refugee students, anticolonialism, antiracism

Special Issue

Examining Race, Racism, and Racialization in the Internationalization of Higher Education from Global Perspectives

Abstract

As of 2024, over 123 million people have been forcibly displaced due to war, persecution, climate catastrophe, and geopolitical instability. Among them, young people constitute a significant portion, many of whom aspire to rebuild their lives through higher education. Canada, a top destination for refugee resettlement, remains deeply inequitable for refugee access to postsecondary education. Although lauded for its commitments to diversity and inclusion, Canadian settler-colonial hierarchies and racialized politics of belonging continue to shape which displaced bodies are seen as deserving of education, opportunity, and protection. These dynamics underscore how forced migration, race, and higher education intersect within the internationalization landscape, revealing who is positioned as a global learner and who is rendered invisible within Canadian higher education institutions (HEIs). This conceptual essay seeks to visibly the invisibility of refugee students within the HEI political landscape and calls for holistic, anticolonial and antiracist approaches to internationalization in HEI.

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